The Men Who Took on Kim Davis: 'We're Complicit in Her Fame'

David Moore and David Ermhold are featured in GQ's Men of the Year issue.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

December 09 2015 11:22 AM EST

December 09 2015 12:25 PM EST

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The gay couple who filmed their repeated attempts to obtain a marriage license from Kentucky clerk Kim Davis are profiled in GQ's Men of the Year issue.

David Moore, 39, and David Ermold, 41, were finally able to marry this fall after three failed attempts; Davis refused to give the men a license, claiming she was working under "God's authority."

Moore and Ermold described their painful, impoverished upbringings to GQ. Moore was raised by a schizophrenic mother in Kentucky, where the family used an outhouse. Ermold grew up with an abusive father in the Philadelphia suburbs. Both men described being bullied as children for being gay.

The two men met online and Ermold moved to Kentucky to live with Moore so they could care for Moore's mother. They describe themselves as introverted people who felt overwhelmed and uncomfortable when the controversy with Davis became national news. But the couple felt compelled to keep up their fight to marry, noting that many people in their rural Kentucky county feel the same as Davis -- that Moore, Ermold, and all LGBT people are sinners.

When Davis was tossed in jail for defying a court order to offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Moore began crying, he told the magazine. "This is not what we wanted," he recalled saying. He added, "We're also complicit in her fame."